Kate Garraway has weighed in on her reaction to learning former Health Secretary Matt Hancock had signed up for I’m A Celebrity as she spoke on behalf of those affected by coronavirus.
The ITV presenter appeared on the early morning programme on Thursday morning alongside hosts Ben Shephard and Susanna Reid.
Following Kate’s own I’m A Celebrity stint in 2019, Susanna asked what Kate’s reaction would be if she had been in the camp this year when Mr Hancock walked in.
Kate started by saying: “I think instinctively, me personally, would want to talk to him and ask him questions about it and try to get to the bottom of how he thought about it.”
Kate’s husband Derek Draper, a former political adviser, became seriously ill with Covid-19 in March 2020, suffering lasting damage to his organs. He now receives 24-hour care from the broadcaster and a team of health workers.
Kate continued: “There’s a very visceral gut reaction to Matt Hancock as he’s there as a very famous face of the time that was miserable for the entire country and we’re still living with the consequences of.
“There will be people watching whose grief is still very very raw from losing people.
“They won't see that rawness of grief and sadness in the way that Matt Hancock is behaving on screen, because he’s laughing and having fun and trying to get to know a new group of people.
“I think if they don’t see that, they are going to not feel healed in any way. I kind of wonder if that’s what Matt Hancock’s motive might be – to show people he does care. Not just heal his career, but heal a time people are still bleeding from.”
This comes after the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! campmates laid into Matt Hancock, with several of the contestants admitting they could have quit the show when he entered.
Charlene White questioned the wisdom of him coming in when the Government has been stable "for five minutes" and Chris Moyles said he had "taken a few weeks off his job".
Boy George then said his mum could have died from Covid and he would have walked if that had happened.
After he had come into camp with Seann Walsh, Owen Warner said to Babatúndé Aléshé: “Do you have any strong views on the geezer?”
Babatúndé said: “It’s hard to kind of push your views aside, it really is, because of the many people whose lives have been affected. But, at the same time, we’ve got to be welcoming and we’ve got to treat people as humans obviously.”
Meanwhile, more campmates struggled to come to terms with the disgraced MP entrance into the jungle as Sue Cleaver said to Boy George and Mike Tindall of Mr Hancock: “He sticks out like a sore thumb.”
I'm A Celebrity airs every night at 9pm on ITV and ITV Hub.
